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Topic: Recommend disk imaging software? (Read 18928 times)

I'm looking for disk imaging software for use on Vista Home Premium. The laptop came with Samsung Recovery Solution III, which I used to make the original image before putting anything much on the machine, but I don't know how good it is for regular use. I've glanced at a few other DC threads and am currently inclined to Macrium, though they don't seem to have a free version any more.

The most important thing is if the boot CD sees your disk controller. Before counting on it I would burn the boot CD and boot it. Go through the motions as if you are going to do a restore from an image. If you can't seem to find your HD then you probably need to look for another software.

I have 2 HP Pavilion desktops. I was using Paragon Drive Backup on one for awhile so I just assumed the free 64 bit version would be fine for my new 64 bit quad core. Turned out the new machine had some flaky software Raid controller that could only be seen in compatibility mode. I managed to do a restore when I needed to, but I had to run it for 9 hours overnight instead of the usual 45 minutes to an hour. After that I got the Macrium Trial version and did a backup and full restore. It worked as expected so I bought it. Since then the free version(4.2) has incorporated the same boot CD. Unless you need the WinPE to load a Windows driver you should be ok with the free version. But try it before you need it.

The most important thing is if the boot CD sees your disk controller. Before counting on it I would burn the boot CD and boot it. Go through the motions as if you are going to do a restore from an image. If you can't seem to find your HD then you probably need to look for another software.

That is very good advice. I had a similar situation at one point where my USB backup drive wasn't recognized properly by Acronis. Make sure the boot CD works with the hardware you are likely to use it on .

Seems to be a love/hate among users but Acronis TI imaging component has saved my butt more than once. Can's speak for data backup function. Tech support is spotty but the program's apparently written well so hopefully, you won't have to contact them much as I haven't. Watch for it on sale, though; usual price is always too high.

What type of HD do you have? Both Seagate and Western Digital have free (stripped down) versions of Acronis which allow full image backups.

Those manufacturer versions may not have all the bells and whistles of the latest Acronis version, but they provide a free solution which works well enough for me. I use Seagate DiskWizard and have restored a full image backup several times without issue.

If I weren't using a Seagate or WD version of Acronis, I would go with Macrium Reflect.

Is anyone using Casper? I have played with most of the programs mentioned to date & found them not to be "user-friendly". I have used the free "try before you buy" Casper & it was simple as. Anyone want to put in their 2 cents before i buy?

For those situations I have found Macrium not to be reliable, because it does not handle bad sectors very well. This is important: You want to have your imaging software also available for minor problems and make a quick image on a slightly faulty or even dying HD (especially as a private person with no data recovery budget). Macrium would not handle these situations.

I have found Drive Snapshot to be one of the secret software gems on the web. It has a GUI as well as command line - DOS and Windows use - and the entire program is under 300k! Just have a look at this page (begin reading at section "Mount a disk Image as virtual drive") to find out some of its more hidden capabilities.

I also looked on Gizmo's site. In the Best Free Drive Imaging Program review, they recommend Paragon as a whisker ahead of Macrium Reflect. But, on another part of the site, an article on Reliable Drive Imaging Software comes down in favour of the TeraByte one. Noting brahman's comment, my hard disk is relatively young and has its hardest thrashing by Windows updates, so bad sectors should not be a problem yet, but it's as well to be prepared.

Interesting difference in the sizes of the programs - Macrium is about 30Mb, Paragon about 100Mb, TeraByte only 6Mb, Drive Snapshot tiny.

That review strikes me as perhaps not the most in-depth ever. For starters, he admits he hasn't actually tried restoring an image using it. Also he is using the Linux version to backup instead of doing it inside Windows.

Apparently you need to run some add-on tool to be able to backup reliably while windows is running, something that is built into pretty much all other tools. Also, as far as I can tell from the feature list it does not support differential images, which would mean you are going to be doing full backups every time.Edit: I was wrong

Now I am not in any way saying it's a bad tool, I have no experience with it -- I am just noting that the review you linked could perhaps have been more thorough and have highlighted some of the features present and absent compared to other tools .

That being said, I'll take a 100% reliable clunky solution without the bells and whistles over a fancy GUI that ends up failing miserably the one time you need it.

I've used BootitNG (Terabyte) for 5+ years for imaging, partition work, and boot management. It's been absolutely reliable. The only possible downside is that it doesn't hold your hand as much as some programs - the interface is "geekier" and there are more options available than most of us will be able to take advantage of.

There are nice video turorials on the website and great support via email and newsgroup.

The only 100% reliable solution I have come across - at least as much as there is one - is Symantec Ghost v. 8 (haven't tried newer ones). It is, unfortunately for many, an offline solution - meaning you must run it from a different computer on the one you want to image - but I haven't seen any others as reliable. I have used True Image, which works reasonably well, but doesn't always restore gracefully, Drive Image - way back during the heyday of Ghost, and a few others that just didn't work.

That said, I never tried Macrium or Paragon's solutions, as I didn't have a need for them. Now that I am trialing Windows 7, however, I can either try to find an offline imager or start working with these as my version of True Image doesn't work with 7. Drive Snapshot looks good too, though. I think I will start with that one - thanks brahman...

I am just noting that the review you linked could perhaps have been more thorough[...]I'll take a 100% reliable clunky solution without the bells and whistles over a fancy GUI that ends up failing miserably the one time you need it.

That's two good points

I hadn't expected on-the-fly imaging, though, and was surprised to see it. I'd expected "offline" only, which I take to mean, the PC basically isn't doing anything else while the image is made. I'd be happy to settle for that for home use.

I alternate images between Acronis (make sure you don't upgrade Acronis right away when a new version comes out -- wait a good bit until the bugs are worked out) and Drive Snapshot and I always image with verify backup enabled.

I must say both have never let me down! But especially with Acronis I stay away from the "fancy" features like recovery zone or time capsule (whatever they name it) and just do the basic imaging. I wish they would have an Acronis light product with emphasis on the essentials because those 100MB installation packages take a lot of disk space.

Terabyte has always made excellent software. I trialed their imaging product but wished it would be faster and make smaller files. That may have changed by now, though.

I must say both have never let me down! But especially with Acronis I stay away from the "fancy" features like recovery zone or time capsule (whatever they name it) and just do the basic imaging. I wish they would have an Acronis light product with emphasis on the essentials because those 100MB installation packages take a lot of disk space.

I would say I *occasionally* have issues with corrupted .tib files, and that is the only issue I have had with Acronis. That is why I ALWAYS do a restore to a spare drive to verify (I have something like 8 of them laying around, so it isn't much of an issue other than the pain of disconnecting the original).

I had problems with restoring an Acronis "TrueImage" a few years ago - and it installs all kinds of background services programs that will be running on every startup. I tried the Terabyte solution but it was way too geeky for me. I have not the slightest clue what most of the options are about. Paragon Hard Disk Manager seems to be right for me; dumbed down just enough for me to be able to use it; it has been reliable so far and has a wonderful rescue CD that offers exactly the same user interface and tools as the full install of the program.

I second Image for DOS/Windows. Technically superior in every respect. I automatically run my OS image backups invisibly in the background while I continue working. You don't even know its running. GUI is easy to use also. A lot of nice software tools on the site, if one is so inclined. Frequently updated. I paid $20.00 for this program a few years back. Have never had to pay for an update. Never had any problems with this software, albeit you need to read the manual to fully understand how to take advantage of capabilities beyond using the GUI.